Several hundred years ago, people immigrated to the Adirondacks, cleared land, strived for making a living on this land through developing agriculture. Today, the Adirondacks local people make use of the land properly and cultivate many delicious food to make a living or offer to customers as well. Why not explore the history of farming in the Adirondacks a little bit and find something different from today?
It is very interesting to see what has changed throughout a few hundred years. Phillip G Terrie wrote in the book Contested Terrain that, “ An additional crop that nearly every Adirondacks family harvested was maple sugar.” Since I come from China, I don’t know what maple sugar is before I read that book, but it really intrigued me to explore the difference of making maple sugar during distinct periods of time. In Glynn Pearsall’s novel, Leaves Torn Asunder, he mentioned that “ they didn’t use galvanized sap buckets for collecting from the trees but rather hand-made buckets of maple and birch with a staghorn sumac spile.” Maple sap is boiled in a large cauldron over an open fire to make syrup. Can you imagine how hand-made buckets looked like? Here is a picture below.
Today, procedures to make maple sugar are spread online. Here is one on the YouTube, and it might be helpful if you would like to have a try! https://youtu.be/Bru16wld5PI
What about farming machine and harvesting methods in the old Adirondacks time? John Deere had patented the first steel plow in 1837 that the Adirondacks people also put into use. Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown showed that the first practical mowing machines were developed in the 1850s, but the Adirondacks didn’t taste the fruit of this so early. It was not until after civil war that “the first har mower pulled by two horses was introduced,” as told by Glynn Pearsall. Before that, harvesting of hay and gain crops were done by hand using long handled scythes. Moreover, wheat was the major crop for most parts of the Adirondacks, but buckwheat was the fundamental crop in the southeast Adirondacks: “there are some 300 buckwheat farms scattered from the edge of the Adirondacks,” as published on the New York Times.
Cattle, of course, should be important in farming. According to records, farmers generally had twenty five heads of cattle. However, here is a fun fact. “By 1837 there were over one million sheep in Vermont,” as indicated by Vermont History website. One another fun fact is that since sheep wander and scatter, it becomes necessary to keep track of who owned which sheep, and the Johnsburg Historical Society had archives specifically for a list of registered sheep marks!
Today, technology regarding farming brings residents of the Adirondacks convenience and revenue, but it is still entertaining to look back, see how traditional farming method supported people at their time, and compare it to that of today.
Cited resources:
- https://vermonthistory.org/william-jarvis-and-the-merino-sheep-craze
- https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/20/dining/national-origin-finger-lakes-a-heartland-crop-a-new-york-address.html
- https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2016/10/mid-19th-century-adirondack-farm-life.html
- Contested Terrain by Phillip G Terrie